Trapped On The Tarmac

Left: People spring up to exit America West Flight 212 at 2:23 a.m. in Albuquerque - and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait!

The flight in from Las Vegas/Sacramento was uneventful. There was a baby crying inconsolably. Weather was nice, traffic was light, but we were still not immune to screwups.

Apparently we were supposed to exit at Gate A4. We came in at Gate B3. The jetway operator apparently oversteered the jetway and broke it, incidentally also plunging us for a full minute into a onboard power failure. And there were no tug operators to tow us to another gate at that hour - all the Albuquerque Sunport airport workers had apparently gone to bed. So, we waited for a full hour before deplaning!

The only good part was the inconsolable baby was finally happy, once the plane stopped moving. The passengers were peeved, and the flight crew seemed pretty grim. The woman next to me repeated over and over, "I'll never fly America West again! I'll never fly America West again!"